California Home Sales Drop 21 Percent, Even More In Riverside County
A tracking firm says home sales in Southern California plummeted more than 21 percent last month from July 2009, their biggest drop in more than two years.
San Diego-based MDA DataQuick said Tuesday that the drop from about 24,100 homes in July 2009 to around 19,000 homes last month came as federal tax credits that had been fueling sales expired.
The firm says last month was the slowest July since 2007, when just under 18,000 homes sold.
Last month’s sales were also down about 21 percent from around 23,900 in June.
Homes sales in Riverside County plunged 24.9 percent in July, compared to the same month a year ago, while prices increased 8.1 percent during the same period, a real estate information service reported today.
A total of 3,529 homes changed hands locally last month, compared to 4,699 in July 2009, according to La Jolla-based MDA DataQuick. The median price of a home in Riverside County in July was $200,000, compared to $185,000 in the same month a year ago.
A total of 18,946 new and resale houses and condos sold in the six- county Southern California region — Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties — in July, according to DataQuick. That was down 20.6 percent from 23,871 in June, and down 21.4 percent from 24,104 in July 2009.
The drop was the biggest year-over-year decline in more than two years, with the market losing the boost it had received from federal home-buyer tax credits.
“It appears some of the sales that normally would have occurred in July were instead tugged into June or even May as buyers tried to take advantage of the expiring tax credits,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president. “Some of last month’s underlying technical numbers were largely flat, indicating that the market is treading water.”
The median price for a Southern California home was $295,000 last month, down 1.7 percent from $300,000 in June, and up 10.1 percent from $268,000 in July 2009, according to DataQuick.
